Police dispel common myths about speed cameras

NORTH Yorkshire Police are trying to bust common myths about speed cameras as part of a road safety campaign.

The campaign, called “If you saw what I saw…”, uses the first-hand experiences of officers who deal with fatal crashes to urge motorists to drive more carefully.

And the police are spreading the message that speed cameras are an essential part of their road safety work – not a money-maker for the force.

Andy Tooke, Criminal Justice Operations Manager for North Yorkshire Police, said: “There’s no doubt that there are a lot of myths out there about safety cameras.

“Everyone’s got an opinion about them. But not everyone knows the full facts about why we use them.

“By busting some of the myths out there, we hope that next time people drive past a camera van, they’ll have a better understanding of why we use them and think about why we want them to drive safely.”

Mr Tooke said that safety cameras are just one of a raft of measures used by North Yorkshire Police to reduce deaths and injuries on the county’s roads.

He added: “We want people to drive safely because day in, day out, our officers see the horrific consequences of collisions.

“They see bodies that have been horrendously injured and have to tell families that they’ll never see a loved one again.

“There’s only one reason we use mobile safety cameras – to reduce the number of casualties on our roads. And it’s independently proven that they do this.

“If you saw what we saw, you’d understand why that’s so important to us.”

One of the most common misconceptions about the cameras is that they are used to make money for the police, but last year they actually cost slightly more to run than they generated.

Other complaints about them are that they are used ‘stealthily’ to catch out drivers and are only used on A roads and dual carriageways.

The police say that the cameras are placed on roads that are statistically the most dangerous, and the vans are always highly visible.

In the next few weeks the force will be sharing more information about the role of mobile safety cameras and how they are used to improve road safety.

They will also be revealing the ten North Yorkshire locations in which drivers are most likely to encounter a camera van and the highest speeds recorded in 30mph zones in a bid to encourage motorists to drive more safely.